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"It may not look like much, but it's got it where it counts"

OVERVIEW
Blue Max is one of the most famous titles released for the Commodore 64. It is the first three-dimension flyer action game. Rather than making you look at the action from the side or the top, a diagonal view is used. As a result, a three-dimensional environment in which the player can move in six directions rather than four is created. This same engine was later used in many other Commodore titles, but Blue Max was the first to implement it.
In the game, you take control of one of the first combat planes in the first World War. You fly your plane against Germany, shooting down enemy aircraft, bombing vital installations, and generally trying not to get yourself killed. Those who manage to survive long enough get a chance to bomb Berlin and complete the game.
With its fairly advanced game engine (for its time) and smooth, challenging gameplay, Blue Max is an excellent action title.

GAMEPLAY
At the beginning of the game, and between every sortie, your plane starts on the runway, ready for takeoff. Once airborne, you'll be taken over hostile territory. Here you can move left and right as well as forward and backward to get to your intended targets, as well as change your altitude. If you fly too high, you'll have a hard time placing your bombs accurately - but if you fly too low, you're an easy target for flak (anti air guns), and risk crashing into the trees.
The territory you fly over consists of trees and open grass, and is filled with enemy tanks, flak, buildings, roads, rivers, boats and bridges. Basically your task is to destroy as much as possible, though some targets are more desirable than others. For instance, destroying buildings and bridges is better for your score than blowing up a tank or two or making a hole in a road. Some of the targets you'll find along the way bear a flashing blue sign. These are objectives, and to get ahead in the game, you need to destroy them.
After a sortie over enemy territory, a friendly runway will appear ahead and you can land to refuel, rearm and repair your plane. This is not without risk, however, as enemy planes will attempt to bomb you while you are helpless on the runway. At times this will force you to perform an emergency takeoff, and possibly fly the next sortie with a damaged plane or a depleted bombs or fuel reserve.

If you nevertheless manage to perform well, destroy many targets and keep your plane in one piece, you'll soon get opportunities to bomb enemy runways. The damage you do against runways and against enemy planes is key to finishing the game. Once you've done a certain amount of damage over the course of the game, you'll have achieved air superiority and you will be allowed to strike the final target - Berlin itself. A successful bombing run on the Reichstag, the German governmental buildings, concludes the game.

It's not easy to get that far, though. Your plane is quite fragile, and a collision against a ground object or enemy plane results in instant death. Since you have only one life, that ends the game as well. You can also lose your plane by attempting to take off with insufficient speed (which often happens if you used too much runway while landing, leaving you without enough space for a takeoff), crashing after running out of fuel, being bombed while on the runway, or being hit repeatedly with flak.
Flak is actually the only thing that doesn't destroy your plane instantly. And that's a good thing, since it is very hard to avoid, and you are bound to take a few hits along the way. Each flak hit will damage a certain part of your plane, decreasing your performance. For instance, your main gun could be damaged, causing it to function only sporadically - or, worst of all, you could end up with a leaking fuel tank, which makes reaching the next runway alive a challenge in itself.

What it comes down to is that survival is your first priority in Blue Max at all times, as one wrong move could mean your death and the end of the game. Scoring points and accomplishing your mission are secondary objectives compared to that.

CONTROLS
The joystick moves your plane left and right as well as up and down in the usual way. To move forward and backwards across the screen, the stick must be pushed to the upper right or pulled to the lower left. This takes some getting used to, but with some practice, you'll soon be able to put this extra dimension to good use. It comes in particularly useful when trying to shoot down enemy planes.

The fire button is used to operate your plane's main cannon, which is normally used against other planes, but can also be used to strafe certain ground targets at low altitude. Bombs are dropped by pulling the stick back and pressing the fire button at the same time.

Your plane reacts very smoothly to the movements of the joystick, which is a definite plus. Interestingly, your plane's reactions will be hampered if you take a flak hit to your engines, making proper control a lot harder. Under normal circumstances, however, Blue Max is easy to control. A definite plus considering the game's difficulty level - it's hard enough as it is!

GRAPHICS
Lack of variety is the main problem here. Enemy territory is a huge green field. There are trees all over it, but they all look the same. There are tanks all over it, but they all look the same. Enemy planes attack you, and they all look...you get the idea. Even your plane looks precisely like them.
Thankfully the game at least gives planes and buildings different colors (and in the case of buildings, also different sizes) to provide some variety, but mostly every sortie looks the same as any other.
Berlin itself, at the final stage of the game, doesn't look like much either. It is a dull, grey place with many cannons and massive buildings on either side. The buildings of the Reichstag are good, well-drawn graphics, even though all four of them look exactly the same.

Graphics, then, are not Blue Max's strong point. However, the constant scrolling animation is smooth with no graphics glitches in sight, which is commendable considering the revolutionary nature of Blue Max's engine.

SOUND
Similar to the graphics, the sound is there, but not very varied. Your engines roar steadily throughout the game, changing in pitch only when slowing down to land or speeding up during takeoff. Oh, and they shut off entirely if you run out of fuel, naturally. Other sounds include the explosions of nearby flak and the explosion of a target destroyed by your cannon or bombs. Unfortunately everything from a road to a building or a plane explodes with exactly the same sound, and once you have completed a sortie or two, it gets rather repetitive.

DIFFICULTY
Even at the easiest difficult setting, Blue Max is a game requiring many hours of practice. This is mainly due to the fact that you have only one life, and you can lose it rather easily. It's not uncommon for even an experienced player to have been flying for 30 minutes or more, then make a minor mistake and collide with an enemy plane. Also, flak can be hard to dodge at times, and simple bad luck like getting a leaking fuel tank directly after takeoff can doom you.

Those who aren't frightened by any of this will be pleased to know there are three settings of difficulty. Higher levels feature more flak, more enemy planes, and more aggressive attempts to bomb you while you're on the runway. Additionally, you can turn on a gravity effect, causing your plane to slowly lose altitude by itself and forcing you to compensate. This makes it much harder to maintain the right altitude for shooting down an enemy plane or performing a strafing run.

All in all, Blue Max is hard enough at its easiest setting, and provides enough options for advanced players to keep them challenged.

THE GOOD
Blue Max gets a thumbs-up for:

- Good original flight engine with smooth control;
- Pleasing difficulty level which can be customized.

THE BAD
Blue Max falls short in the following areas:

- Mediocre use of graphics and sound;
- Significant risk of unfair death due to bad luck.

CONCLUSION
Blue Max is a true classic, and one that any Commodore 64 fan should play at one point or another. However, do not expect an easy run, and be aware that a slight mistake or even a stroke of bad luck can be enough to end a session prematurely. And for a game that can easily take an hour of non-stop flying to complete, that can be exercise in frustration. Not recommended for the joystick-out-of-the-window-throwing type.



Reviewer's Score: 8/10 | Originally Posted: 07/30/01, Updated 07/30/01